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Introduction: These jaegers i built using jaeger designer and also made a background for some of them.

the blueprint for alabama 12 (front view).the first jaeger built for the U.S. it was built for new york and is now helping to build skyscrapers.the blueprint for alabama 12 (back view)built for long-ranged combatroll tide roll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!the second gipsy danger (in my imagination) if you do not know what i am talking about see pacific rim (just realized this, i put the wrong legs (and arms!) on it the legs are cherno alpha’s and i don’t know what jaegar the arms belong to)!the blueprint for alabama 48 (i think)shih han’s jaegar.the second cherno alpha

bessie’s jaegert’was the strongest jaeger ever built but it rusted quickly, so when it went out into the waves to fight a kaiju it rusted to the core but fortunatly the crew was rescued by alabama 48this jaeger helped rescue the crew of alabama 8.as the name sugusts it is the only mark-7 jaeger IN SERVICE. there have been others.this jaeger was moved to hawaii after alabama 50 was moved to japan.this jaeger froze in alaska.this jaeger froze in alaskathis is a rogue jaeger it was accidentally turned into a living organism!

On January 24, 2004 @ 15:30 I created Blog Ian to chronicle my son’s journey through this world. At the time, he was four months old. I happily ran it on Blogger software running on one of my own Web servers. Then, in 2010 Google—which had bought Blogger in 2003—decreed that all Blogger blogs must run on blogspot.com.

I didn’t like entrusting control of my data to Google/Blogger, but I complied and moved Blog Ian and a couple other blogs over there. There were a few bumps in the transition, but I was basically satisfied with Blogger even as I began to use WordPress for more and more of my blogging and basic Website design needs. It’s gotten to the point now that whenever I need a quick-n-dirty Website, I slap together a WordPress installation in, like, 20 minutes.

Until…

Until the day (and I don’t even know exactly when) when Blogger decided to delete all of the images I’d uploaded between 2010 (when I moved to blogspot.com) and 2014. Dozens of images were suddenly missing. I still don’t know exactly why beyond some sort of weird cluster-crap among Blogger, Google+, and Picasa (and PicasaWeb). You see, Blogger, unbeknownst to me, was storing my new, uploaded images in PicasaWeb. Best I can guess, there was some shift in my Google account—perhaps when I activated Google plus—that disconnected Blog Ian from its PicasaWeb album.

I spent an hour or so yesterday trying to figure out exactly how it happened—following leads suggested here—but I was not able to track down Blogger’s crap move.

So, Good-Bye Blogger

And so that motivates me to bid adieu to Blogger. WordPress is a superior blogging platform. Why stick with Blogger when it’s going to do crappy stuff like this?

Many of my images are permanently lost, best I can tell. I still had all my pre-2010 images, from back when Blogger was good software. In fact, they were all waiting for me back on the Web server I’d originally used for the self-hosted Blogger! It’s taken me the better part of the day to move everything, but I think I’m going to be happier with WordPress as Blog Ian‘s new home.

Of course, there hasn’t been much activity on Blog Ian since Facebook took over social media, but still…

I’m afraid most of the good stuff about Ian gets posted to Facebook and not here. I guess it makes sense since Facebook is relatively more private that Blogger (the host of Blog Ian). Still, it’s kinda sad.

“My family go to the SMR.” Ian’s family inside two submarines. Stairsteps go up to periscopes. Large propeller on back. Squiggly line indicates water line. Long line on left connects a little ship with an anchor.

Our house — with a chimney in brown on the left and smoke ascending. The object on the left is our garbage can, with its lid and wheels. The front door has a knocker at the top. Me: “Why are there threes on it?” Ian: “Because that’s how much it costs.”

Ian’s been quite busy at his new school (Matthews Elementary) — learning more about letters and numbers and how to survive lunch in a cafeteria.

He’s also made great strides in his drawing skills. Here are the first family portraits he has ever drawn. The top row contains Mommy and Ian and the bottom is Daddy and Babcia (his grandmother Galbraith).

His second family portrait sticks with the nuclear family: Mommy (left), Daddy (right) and Ian (below). As he explains, Daddy is very happy, as can be seen by his huge smile. He is not wearing his glasses because this drawing is from before he needed them.

11 August 2009 marked the beginning of Ian’s formal schooling. Having graduated from preschool last may (see the entry for 10 May 2009), Ian continued to hang on at the Child Development Research Center Children’s Program throughout the summer. As July came to an end, however, so did his time with them and with his much loved teachers, Ms. Alison and Ms. Gale. They did a great job preparing him for “big kids” school.

And so, on that fateful Tuesday, he put on his new backpack (with matching lunch box inside) and he, his mommy and his daddy headed off to Matthews Elementary School. He was so ready to go!

There was a bit of a traffic jam that morning as all the new kids figured out how to get there. Fortunately we made it inside before the “tardy bell” rang. (Yes, we have now entered a world of tardy bells. Sweet Jesus! At the Children’s Program we could saunter in any old time. No longer!)

Ms. Owens, Ian’s teacher, had all the kindergarten kids line up in the hallway as we waited for everyone to arrive. Ian was very patient and sat waiting and talking to a new friend next to him. When Ms. Owens called them in, he was one of the first to hop up and, without so much as a look back at his misty-eyed mom and dad, he was into his new classroom and sitting at his desk.

We’d gone to an open house the day before so he knew just where to sit.

Later, Marysia picked him up and his teacher’s report (filed in his backpack everyday) showed a smiley face for a job well done! 🙂 One can also receive frown faces 🙁 or non-plussed faces 😐 so we were quite proud of our young scholar.

Unfortunately, he came down with a fever and headache Wednesday night so we had to keep him home on Thursday. He quickly recovered, however, and was back at school Friday. Of course, Marysia had to write (our first ever!) absence-excuse note! I guess we truly are parents of a school kid now. Oh, and Ian had homework — homework in kindergarten — to do over the weekend.

There ain’t no going back.

It feels very odd to make this transition from a school environment based on learning through play to kindergarten, where learning can still be fun, but it also can just be work.

I’m sure that there’s going to be a lot of learning for both Ian and his parents in the years to come.

Ian has had an excellent first week, with Ms. Owens rewarding him with a smiley face for his work. (Each week the students either get a smiley face, a frown face, or a face with a straight line — to indicate their progress that week.) More on the first day, with photos, to follow.